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Spotlight: Blame The Youth

The antithesis of the masculine, white bands that saturate the music world, Blame The Youth are our refreshing, exciting and brilliant Spotlight artists this week.

With a band mantra of “Be yo’self! Be real!”, the band are an uncompromising mix of styles, experiences and ideas. They describe their sound as ‘an eclectic mix of alternative and soulful sounds with a little rock and jazz’, which might sound a little too broad, but it works. Bassist Amber is classically trained on the violin and viola who was “raised primarily on Neo-soul and West Coast Rap”, lead guitarist Alexa is a metalhead who loves progressive music and drummer Kynadi who is into “funky beats with odd time signatures.” You can really hear how their musical backgrounds feed into their art authentically, creating something greater than the sum of its parts.

Alexa says “the most exciting part about being in a band is seeing the creative process naturally unfold.” Without any strict formula, “one person’s stream of consciousness” might lead to the others adding to the soundscape and “all of a sudden, we’ve written a new song!” “Each of us adds our own unique layer to whatever we are working on at the time, and it becomes something totally different from what we started with.”

Their music is also used to spread messages and ideas. “Since the conception of music, the people who have created it were messengers.” With their diverse backgrounds, the group use their platform to be political and stand up to oppression and express themselves. “It’s all political in some way” they add.

The bands only release, the brilliant Hourglass EP, came out in March, “It really represents where we were musically at the time.” they say. “A couple of the tracks were written a couple years prior, and some were finished maybe a couple months before we recorded the EP”, but with all its sounds and ideas, the record is as cohesive as it is unique. “We definitely want to challenge ourselves as musicians and maybe move in a different direction, while still keeping our unique style – Wherever and however we move, expect to see more BTY!”